Joshua Otti
@joshuaotti.bsky.social
Hi, My name is Joshua Cook Otti. I am a PhD in theoretical computer science, software engineer, and the author for stemforest books.
My website: joshuaotti.com
Stem Forest Books website: stemforestbooks.com
My website: joshuaotti.com
Stem Forest Books website: stemforestbooks.com
Pinned
Joshua Otti
@joshuaotti.bsky.social
· Nov 7
Want to teach stem concepts to your elementary age children? Teach them binary search with my book, Leaf's Library. It's about brown fairies who learn binary search to find books faster.
Steam frame has finally, *released*. I plan on getting one.
Overall, still a bit disappointed that the screens aren't better and the battery isn't bigger given the price. But I've been wanting a more reliable steaming headset to try with my VR treadmill, so I'm getting it.
Overall, still a bit disappointed that the screens aren't better and the battery isn't bigger given the price. But I've been wanting a more reliable steaming headset to try with my VR treadmill, so I'm getting it.
September 15, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Steam frame has finally, *released*. I plan on getting one.
Overall, still a bit disappointed that the screens aren't better and the battery isn't bigger given the price. But I've been wanting a more reliable steaming headset to try with my VR treadmill, so I'm getting it.
Overall, still a bit disappointed that the screens aren't better and the battery isn't bigger given the price. But I've been wanting a more reliable steaming headset to try with my VR treadmill, so I'm getting it.
In America there are three widely accepted genders:
Straight Man,
Woman,
Gay Man.
Gender is a social role related to sex and sexuality. Society more or less decides what the buckets are. Of course you may not fall neatly into one of these buckets. But some things are not in the culture.
Straight Man,
Woman,
Gay Man.
Gender is a social role related to sex and sexuality. Society more or less decides what the buckets are. Of course you may not fall neatly into one of these buckets. But some things are not in the culture.
September 13, 2026 at 12:57 PM
In America there are three widely accepted genders:
Straight Man,
Woman,
Gay Man.
Gender is a social role related to sex and sexuality. Society more or less decides what the buckets are. Of course you may not fall neatly into one of these buckets. But some things are not in the culture.
Straight Man,
Woman,
Gay Man.
Gender is a social role related to sex and sexuality. Society more or less decides what the buckets are. Of course you may not fall neatly into one of these buckets. But some things are not in the culture.
I can't sleep and staring at the glowing rectangle has not helped. Help me sleep glowing rectangle.
September 13, 2026 at 12:33 PM
I can't sleep and staring at the glowing rectangle has not helped. Help me sleep glowing rectangle.
I will say: I don't miss the fold from old phone at all (screen broke on z flip 4), but I DO miss the camera preview screen on the back. That should be a standard phone feature
August 23, 2026 at 6:44 PM
I will say: I don't miss the fold from old phone at all (screen broke on z flip 4), but I DO miss the camera preview screen on the back. That should be a standard phone feature
Kind of want to build an AI context management system with recursive, hierarchical compaction with a backing file store in case full chat segment must be retrieved. I also want to pair it with an intelligent, targeted compaction that can discard irrelevant context in line.
August 23, 2026 at 9:33 AM
Kind of want to build an AI context management system with recursive, hierarchical compaction with a backing file store in case full chat segment must be retrieved. I also want to pair it with an intelligent, targeted compaction that can discard irrelevant context in line.
I have a really over engineered infinite mirror I'd like to make. Essentially the idea is to make an endless field, but don't have one way mirror extend to the floor (that would cause too much light dissipation!) Instead use high quality mirrors for all sides EXCEPT for a window.
August 18, 2026 at 3:34 AM
I have a really over engineered infinite mirror I'd like to make. Essentially the idea is to make an endless field, but don't have one way mirror extend to the floor (that would cause too much light dissipation!) Instead use high quality mirrors for all sides EXCEPT for a window.
Now that we have killed pennies, let's kill nickels and quarters. I personally like quarters, they are a nice size coin for a coin. But as we move away from currency, dimes are the cheapest to print, most convenient, and a reasonable resolution to divide dollars by.
August 17, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Now that we have killed pennies, let's kill nickels and quarters. I personally like quarters, they are a nice size coin for a coin. But as we move away from currency, dimes are the cheapest to print, most convenient, and a reasonable resolution to divide dollars by.
AI has officially made me sad now. I watched a funny video about code compiling on the first try, and people in the future won't understand any of those jokes.
August 14, 2026 at 7:16 AM
AI has officially made me sad now. I watched a funny video about code compiling on the first try, and people in the future won't understand any of those jokes.
Found out Samsung just removed the sd card on their a50 line. Congratulations Samsung, you lost your only competitive edge over Google (in this price range).
August 11, 2026 at 4:09 AM
Found out Samsung just removed the sd card on their a50 line. Congratulations Samsung, you lost your only competitive edge over Google (in this price range).
I think there is still a lot of improvement to be made in AI agent tools. I think we are incredibly wasteful with tokens, and smarter compaction rules could make things a lot cheaper, and a lot faster.
August 8, 2026 at 11:37 AM
I think there is still a lot of improvement to be made in AI agent tools. I think we are incredibly wasteful with tokens, and smarter compaction rules could make things a lot cheaper, and a lot faster.
I used to think that there wasn't a lot of space to innovate in the AI coding assistant space. I changed my mind. All the tools are doing the most basic context management you could imagine.
No built in context reuse for subagents. No message auto compaction to save context.
No built in context reuse for subagents. No message auto compaction to save context.
July 31, 2026 at 8:13 AM
I used to think that there wasn't a lot of space to innovate in the AI coding assistant space. I changed my mind. All the tools are doing the most basic context management you could imagine.
No built in context reuse for subagents. No message auto compaction to save context.
No built in context reuse for subagents. No message auto compaction to save context.
With shows like jaadugar a witch in mongolia and ascendance of a bookworm, it's looking good this season.
July 18, 2026 at 9:59 AM
With shows like jaadugar a witch in mongolia and ascendance of a bookworm, it's looking good this season.
Not everyone who joins ice is a criminal. Like any gang, there are often survival reasons to join.
But like other gangs, their main purpose is to commit crime and we should not tolerate it. Most of its members, especially the high ranking ones organizing the crimes, should be put in jail.
But like other gangs, their main purpose is to commit crime and we should not tolerate it. Most of its members, especially the high ranking ones organizing the crimes, should be put in jail.
July 10, 2026 at 9:02 AM
Not everyone who joins ice is a criminal. Like any gang, there are often survival reasons to join.
But like other gangs, their main purpose is to commit crime and we should not tolerate it. Most of its members, especially the high ranking ones organizing the crimes, should be put in jail.
But like other gangs, their main purpose is to commit crime and we should not tolerate it. Most of its members, especially the high ranking ones organizing the crimes, should be put in jail.
If it's worth $1 for your AI to search the web, it's worth 20 cents to pay the publishers of those sites.
July 9, 2026 at 8:28 PM
If it's worth $1 for your AI to search the web, it's worth 20 cents to pay the publishers of those sites.
Train: we are having mechanical issues, please wait.
*Doors shut*
Train: we will take you across the river and then stop 3 miles short of your destination. Leaving you stranded. We could have told you before we left this station, but that wouldn't suck as bad. Can’t leave now.
*Doors shut*
Train: we will take you across the river and then stop 3 miles short of your destination. Leaving you stranded. We could have told you before we left this station, but that wouldn't suck as bad. Can’t leave now.
July 9, 2026 at 5:56 PM
Train: we are having mechanical issues, please wait.
*Doors shut*
Train: we will take you across the river and then stop 3 miles short of your destination. Leaving you stranded. We could have told you before we left this station, but that wouldn't suck as bad. Can’t leave now.
*Doors shut*
Train: we will take you across the river and then stop 3 miles short of your destination. Leaving you stranded. We could have told you before we left this station, but that wouldn't suck as bad. Can’t leave now.
Sometimes I wonder how far back in time I could be sent and I would be able to massively upgrade all technology vs be killed for being a political dissident.
July 8, 2026 at 7:36 AM
Sometimes I wonder how far back in time I could be sent and I would be able to massively upgrade all technology vs be killed for being a political dissident.
Just looking at how we do chemistry on quantum computers and, darn, even with a quantum computer it's STILL lots of approximations on approximations.
July 7, 2026 at 9:21 AM
Just looking at how we do chemistry on quantum computers and, darn, even with a quantum computer it's STILL lots of approximations on approximations.
Datacenters aren't bad. If we have reasonable noise limits and laws about how you update grid capacity (and generally require renewable on new products), then they wouldn't be an issue.
But America has a proud tradition of letting businesses screw us over instead of making rules.
But America has a proud tradition of letting businesses screw us over instead of making rules.
July 3, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Datacenters aren't bad. If we have reasonable noise limits and laws about how you update grid capacity (and generally require renewable on new products), then they wouldn't be an issue.
But America has a proud tradition of letting businesses screw us over instead of making rules.
But America has a proud tradition of letting businesses screw us over instead of making rules.
Not gonna lie, the "weird" route in deltarune is one of the most disturbing narratives I've seen. I played undertakes genocide route for the sans fight. I'm not doing the "weird" route. That is too much for me.
June 28, 2026 at 7:49 AM
Not gonna lie, the "weird" route in deltarune is one of the most disturbing narratives I've seen. I played undertakes genocide route for the sans fight. I'm not doing the "weird" route. That is too much for me.
You totally can use AI to help you write, but it's like having your biggest fan (not the one that's necessarily most knowledgeable, just likes you as a person) write for you.
Can be good to bounce ideas off of, play characters, etc. But it'll do a bad job without a lot of scaffolding and feedback.
Can be good to bounce ideas off of, play characters, etc. But it'll do a bad job without a lot of scaffolding and feedback.
June 11, 2026 at 3:30 AM
You totally can use AI to help you write, but it's like having your biggest fan (not the one that's necessarily most knowledgeable, just likes you as a person) write for you.
Can be good to bounce ideas off of, play characters, etc. But it'll do a bad job without a lot of scaffolding and feedback.
Can be good to bounce ideas off of, play characters, etc. But it'll do a bad job without a lot of scaffolding and feedback.
Knowing the technical superiority of one product and its potential use cases DOES not mean it will win in the market. Lots of other bullshit can make it lose.
Take Optane. Great tech for LLMs, faster than nand, cheaper than ram. Reduces ram-pocolypse largely.
Died because it was 8 years early.
Take Optane. Great tech for LLMs, faster than nand, cheaper than ram. Reduces ram-pocolypse largely.
Died because it was 8 years early.
June 7, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Knowing the technical superiority of one product and its potential use cases DOES not mean it will win in the market. Lots of other bullshit can make it lose.
Take Optane. Great tech for LLMs, faster than nand, cheaper than ram. Reduces ram-pocolypse largely.
Died because it was 8 years early.
Take Optane. Great tech for LLMs, faster than nand, cheaper than ram. Reduces ram-pocolypse largely.
Died because it was 8 years early.
If any version of the metaverse is going to succeed, it will be absolute bottom of the barrel roblox style, or extreme top tier, professionals create this content like epic.
Solutions in the middle don’t serve anyone, but are vastly more expensive. Hope no one blew billion dollars on the middle way
Solutions in the middle don’t serve anyone, but are vastly more expensive. Hope no one blew billion dollars on the middle way
May 31, 2026 at 7:03 PM
If any version of the metaverse is going to succeed, it will be absolute bottom of the barrel roblox style, or extreme top tier, professionals create this content like epic.
Solutions in the middle don’t serve anyone, but are vastly more expensive. Hope no one blew billion dollars on the middle way
Solutions in the middle don’t serve anyone, but are vastly more expensive. Hope no one blew billion dollars on the middle way
Now that rec room is shutting down, I'll admit I had a lot of fun with it early on. When it was all adults, pictionary was fun. And their first party quests were solid.
But as kids came in, and they moved to crap user generated content, I lost interest. I have already mourned its slow death.
But as kids came in, and they moved to crap user generated content, I lost interest. I have already mourned its slow death.
May 31, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Now that rec room is shutting down, I'll admit I had a lot of fun with it early on. When it was all adults, pictionary was fun. And their first party quests were solid.
But as kids came in, and they moved to crap user generated content, I lost interest. I have already mourned its slow death.
But as kids came in, and they moved to crap user generated content, I lost interest. I have already mourned its slow death.
Would dehydrated shower gel just be soap? Because I feel like shower gel rinses off cleaner than bar soap.
May 26, 2026 at 6:39 AM
Would dehydrated shower gel just be soap? Because I feel like shower gel rinses off cleaner than bar soap.
I honestly don't understand how companies can be so consistently bad at making their flagship products and stay in business. Like Microsoft and Oracle are still huge businesses despite being terrible at making their main products. I just don't understand why companies buy bad products.
May 9, 2026 at 1:25 PM
I honestly don't understand how companies can be so consistently bad at making their flagship products and stay in business. Like Microsoft and Oracle are still huge businesses despite being terrible at making their main products. I just don't understand why companies buy bad products.